


Shielded

by mysterysiria



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Murder Mystery, Mystery, Swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-14 23:51:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16922739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mysterysiria/pseuds/mysterysiria
Summary: You’re driving to Beacon Hills to help Deaton with something. When you get to Deaton’s clinic, you meet Derek Hale who is unconscious, deeply wounded, and paralyzed.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> My first ever work of fanfiction. First posted on Tumblr.  
> This is AU is a mixture of Seasons 1-6. Derek is an Alpha, and Scott belongs to his pack.

“Why do I have to move to Beacon Hills?” You think to yourself. You were already happy with your life in Frisco. Oh right, there’s a mystery you need to solve. Not that you are a detective of some sort. You’re a full-blown empath. And this is why you’re driving to Beacon Hills alone. This is the reason for many things in your life, in fact. Why you’re single, why you prefer so much space and time away from people, why you don’t really like to touch other people and why you’re so careful about making physical contact with formerly owned objects.

As you drive a straight road, you think about these things, reflecting once more, why did you take this job? You are good friends with Dr. Deaton, being involved in similar experiences sometime in the past. He called you for a pressing, ‘empath’ job. And unfortunately, you’ll need to do this more than once, probably. You have a love/hate relationship with your profession. It is your natural ability to understand and empathize with others. The difference you have with werewolves and their heightened senses is that you need to be close to your subject of interest. You now arrive in Deaton’s clinic, expecting him to be there, as he always is. You knock on the front door.

“Doc? You here? It’s me, (Y/N).” You call out. You hear footsteps coming from inside the clinic as you wait by the desk. For an animal clinic, there are much fewer animals, you think to yourself.

“Ah, (Y/N), thank you for coming. I didn’t know who else to call,” Deaton shakes your hand and gives you a hug as a gesture of seeing you after a long time.

“Don’t worry about it. How have you been?” You say as you naturally express concern for your old friend.

“I’m perfectly fine. I’m glad you’re here. And you came just in time too. I have someone here I need you to look at. He was paralyzed by some creature we haven’t identified yet,” Deaton says and leads you inside the clinic. As you walk in, you could already feel countless terrors coming from the walls of the room. There, you find an unconscious man laying down the metal table.

“This is Derek Hale. He’s a werewolf,” Deaton tells you. You nod at him but don’t respond. You look at the patient and observe him. You don’t come near him just yet. You notice how he’s breathing normally for someone who’s hurt and paralyzed. Derek Hale’s torso is bandaged and his wounds are all over his body. It’s not easy to tell how he got hurt. Your stomach is about to turn upside down when you smell the stench coming from his wounds.

“Are you sure he wasn’t in some form of trauma or accident that led him to paralysis? Maybe he should be in the hospital,” You say to Deaton, and he shakes his head.

“I found him here before he collapsed and then paralyzed. I didn’t even know that was possible. He clearly wanted to be treated here. It must be some kind of creature Beacon Hills hasn’t heard of yet.” You look at him in disbelief, remembering how Beacon Hills is more supernatural than most towns. “Notice these claw marks on his ribs. There’s nothing like it.” Deaton tells you as much as he knows, leaving you to the reason why he called you in the first place.

Now you decide to come close to the table. You look at the man’s wounds, the giant claw marks, but still hesitate to touch them. You observe his breathing again and definitely trying to ignore the good physique this werewolf has. Do they magically grow washboard abs after being bitten? Like Spider-Man? You think to yourself but snap out of it. This is the reality.

You approach his right side, and you slowly touch his right hand with yours, as if you were introducing yourself to him. His hand is not as warm as you expect it to be, but you start to see how much this man has gone through by the roughness of his palm. As you brace yourself for what you’re about to see and feel, you take a deep breath and slowly close your eyes.

Your visions come in swift images. A dark, hostile figure coming to attack the man as you see it in his perspective. You could feel his defensive state he was in before he was hurt, but he was scared too. You feel sudden changes of emotions coming from him and most are repressed ones. The last he had was fear. Unfortunately, you couldn’t see what he was afraid of before being paralyzed. You’re certain it wasn’t his death he was afraid of.

“I couldn’t make out the creature that attacked him. He was attacked last night. It was dark, he was in the woods. And this creature was…well, a monster. Definitely hostile, and out of control,” You say to Deaton with your eyes closed, still trying to find memories from this unconscious werewolf. You realize Deaton may have already assumed everything you’ve said. It’s easy to theorize what you just envisioned. Deaton doesn’t say anything so he doesn’t interrupt your trance. As you try to keep looking inside Derek’s head, you decide to hold his forehead in the hopes of seeing more. But you get distracted from the noise in the background – what seems to you would be the worried pack that this werewolf is a member of.

“We came as soon as we got your call,” You hear someone say this behind you but Deaton shushes him. You could now feel all the new energies emanating from the room. They were probably three, or four people not including Deaton watching what you’re doing.

“What’s going on?” A woman’s whisper distracts you again as your hearing from the physical world is always better than your hearing in the empathic state.

“Please remain silent. I’m trying to find out what happened to your friend here. I’ll explain everything later. Just, please. Do relax too. I could feel the tension from here,” You say as you turn your head to face your right, showing these people that you are talking to them and that you mean business.

You still see the same sight of the dark creature when you keep your left hand on his head, so you decide to move your left hand to his chest, hoping it would show you more than what you’ve already seen. Your right hand remains in his so that your empathic contact doesn’t break. No images come into your head. But a surge of energy is starting to build on your palms. Your nerves are trembling now. You know you’re either about to see or feel something in a matter of seconds. You feel restless, scared, and tired. And because you’re an emotional being, all of this makes you want to cry. You keep your tears until you couldn’t, and tears start falling from your closed eyes. This combination of emotions is coming from this werewolf, and you’re fighting hard to contain it. You feel all of Derek’s emotions too strongly that you no longer feel the presence of the people behind you. You’re still aware that they’re there, but they don’t disrupt this moment for you.

No more images come into your mind, and you decide to break contact to keep what’s left of your energy for the rest of the day. You take another deep breath before removing your hands from the werewolf’s hand and chest. You take a moment to make sense of the physical world. This is how you ground yourself every time after a trance.

Since you are familiar with the clinic, you head to the sink and wash your hands. You do this to cleanse yourself of Derek’s energy. Finally, you wipe your tears and take a couple more breaths. You hear indistinct conversations from the group and you know they have so many questions. But you take your time. After wiping your wet hands, you turn over to them and walk silently towards them. There are four teenagers, you confirm. Two boys and two girls.

“Guys, this is Y/F/N, Y/L/N. She’s an old friend of mine. I called her to help us figure out the creature that attacked Derek. Y/N, meet the pack. Scott McCall, Stiles Stilinski, Allison Argent, and Lydia Martin.” You shake hands with each of them.

“Are all of your werewolves too?” You ask them.

“Scott’s the only one,” Stiles answers you as he puts his arm around Scott. You nod and think about what to say next.

“So what exactly were you doing there? How’s Derek doing?” Scott asks you. You turn back to look at Derek again and remember what you saw.

“He’s gonna be fine. Actually, he could use your emotional support right now,” You answer him monotonously.

“Yeah, like he would ever admit that,” Stiles says with a chuckle. The two girls agree with him but you notice they want a better answer from you.

“Well, I was trying to see his latest memories before he passed out and got paralyzed. I need to hold his hand to be able to do that. And all I saw was this dark creature. Hostile and out of control. He’s a serious threat to your friend. And to all of you.” You tell them, and the room is now in a serious atmosphere. “I’ve brought some of my stuff that could help him heal from paralysis. I’m quite sure this is just temporary paralysis just like that from a Kanima’s attack. Only this one gives him nightmares,” You say to all of them and head to your car to get your bag.

“What is she? Why can she see memories?” The group’s questions bombard Deaton as you leave the room. Deaton tells them what you are. As far as you’re concerned, you’re just a human being, and being able to do these things doesn’t make you any different than those who couldn’t. Except for space you need from people every now and then. As you go back inside the clinic, the atmosphere somewhat changed and yet you still feel awkward with these worried teenagers and what you notice as hyped energy. Or as most people call it, raging hormones.

“It’s hard to see it from it from the outside, but whenever his nerves are twitching, that’s the time his nightmares feel real. And I think that has something to do with his paralysis,” You say to them, and you bring out a small bottle of oil from your bag and open to let Derek smell some of it. Its scent is strong enough to be smelt by werewolves and give quite a lasting effect. Afterward, you put a pea-sized amount of the oil on your palm and spread it on both your palms. You put some oil on Derek’s palms, the center of his forehead, and the rest of it in the center of his chest. You start to state a prayer with your breath, making the words inaudible to the group. You close your eyes as you do this and start massaging Derek on the areas where you put the oil.

“Is she a masseuse too? Maybe I could go next ‘cause I feel sore from all the running – “ Stiles says and gets smacked on the shoulder by Scott, easily gaining the group’s annoyance. Slowly rubbing the oil on the center of his head, you use your thumb to make a final upward motion that makes Derek’s body jerk in shock. It surprises everyone except you.

“Whoa, what the hell was that?” The group asks you.

“I’m trying to snap him from his nightmares. And soon, from his paralysis too, I hope,” You answer, and turn to Deaton. “May I ask for some water, please?” Deaton immediately rushes to get you a glass of water. You grab the glass as Deaton comes back with it and drink from it right away.

“Dude, she’s weird,” Stiles says to Scott. Scott smacks Stiles again and says “Shut up,” but smiles amusingly at him.

“Does this procedure make her thirsty?” Allison asks.

“All the time,” Deaton answers. “What she’s doing right now is giving some healing energy to Derek. The way I see it, Derek’s werewolf couldn’t heal from the paralysis. It’s probably why he fell unconscious first before being paralyzed. His werewolf being his alter ego, is also the last one to be affected by the attack.”

Suddenly, Derek’s body jerks rapidly more than once, disturbing the calm in the room. The group rushes to the table to hold Derek down but you warn them not to.

“His physical reaction to the procedure is a good sign. I think he’s healing from the inside out.” You repeat the procedure and continue emanating energy from inside you and transfer it to him. After a few more upward strokes of your thumb on his forehead, Derek’s finally able to regain consciousness and almost turns into his werewolf self, obviously being on defense mode. You take a few steps back away in panic as his friends hold him down to keep him from turning. 

“Derek! It’s us! You’re safe! It’s all right!” Scott exclaims. You look at his searing red eyes and it startles you since you’ve never met an Alpha before. He roars loudly and it sends your heart jumping in fright. When his panicked look meets yours, his eyes turn back to his normal color - green, and he calms down. His look changes from being defensive to almost in doubt that he is where he is. You leave his friends to explain to him what happened, and what you were doing to him. 

Meanwhile, you’re not sure if you should wash your hands again but you find yourself doing it anyway – anything to keep yourself busy and away from the potentially hostile patient. Deaton introduces you to Derek as you finish washing your hands and wiping them, only to touch Derek’s again for a handshake.

“Thanks for saving my life,” Derek says to you as he hangs his legs from the metal table. You shake your head. “I didn’t. Deaton did,” You say as you glance at Deaton.

“Well, it certainly felt like I was dying. Over and over.” Derek looks down and runs both hands across his head.

“I think what I did was snap you out of your nightmares. Did that cause your paralysis?” You ask him.

“How did you know I was having nightmares?” Derek asks you while he looks at his bruises and wounds.

“She’s psychic,” Stiles interrupts. Derek looks at him irritatingly, still waiting for your answer. For some reason, the rest of the group doesn’t bother to tell him themselves. “Seriously. We live in a world where werewolves and Kanimas exist but you all are skeptical about psychics?” All of you look at Stiles to shut him up.

“I’m an empath. I assume you know what that is?” You turn to Derek.

“Never heard of it. But coming from the word empath, I think I know what you do,” Derek replies. “Does anyone have a clean shirt around here?” You raise your eyebrows in agreement to the question. He should’ve had his shirt on the whole time, you think. You notice that this may happen frequently because the pack did bring extra clothes for Derek. All but a first aid kit.

“Do you still remember what attacked you? What happened?” Scott starts asking the vital questions.

“I don’t know – I…” Derek pinches the skin between his eyes. “It looked like a Kanima, I guess, but it sounded like a wolf. I don’t even know what he did to put me in paralysis.” You quietly listen as Derek says this to the pack. The rest of the pack waits for him to finish recollecting his memories from the attack.

“It’s easy to assume that the creature’s very claws could paralyze the nerves. I don’t know about the nightmares, though.” Deaton adds.

“What were you doing before you were attacked?” You ask him, not moving an inch from where you stand – a good distance from the pack.

“Didn’t you sense the creature before you were attacked?” Scott adds, hinting a tone of worry. Derek gathers himself more but finds it difficult to.

“I sensed him. But it came out of nowhere.”

“I felt that –“ everyone suddenly turn their heads to look at you, and you feel as though you were interrupting Derek. But you continue. “The creature was out of control. Did you feel this too?” You ask him with genuine interest.

“I think it was. Why?”

“It could be a new breed,” Scott suggests.

“It could be a hybrid,” Stiles adds.

“It could be anything,” Lydia responds.

“Or it could be an experiment,” Deaton suggests, and you look at him, confirming that you thought of the same thing.

“An experiment went wrong,” Allison concludes.

“I think we should look it up,” Derek says to wrap up the discussion, and slowly gets down from the metal table.

“Derek, I suggest you take more rest. Take Y/N with you. Let her look after you. Especially with those nightmares,” Deaton says to Derek. Derek doesn’t reply but looks at you and nods. You do the same.

“You can ride in my car if you want a quiet trip home,” You offer him a tiny smile, thinking that Derek might not like riding with his pack carrying a vulnerable mind and possibly, heightened senses. This suggestion makes Derek smile and he just nods at you in agreement.

You proceed to your car while Scott helps Derek walk towards it. Scott goes to the blue Jeep parked beside your car once he closed the door for Derek. You all agree to drive as a convoy. The pack leads you to Derek’s loft. You turn on the radio in a low volume and play your Spotify. You just want to make sure your head stays clear and not be distracted by what could be another episode of Derek’s nightmares. As you arrive at the loft, you wake Derek up as softly as you could.

“Mr. Hale, you can wake up now. We’re at your place.” Derek opens up his eyes and finds the outdoors too bright even when the weather is gloomy. You reach for your baseball cap on the back seat and lend it to him without hesitation. “Here.” You put on the cap on his head gently to relieve him from the eyesore.

“Thanks,” Derek says in a grunting voice, trying to find his strength to sit up straight. “Y/N, right?” You then answer a low “Yeah.”

“Please call me Derek.” This makes you smile a little, noting that he noticed you being so formal with him earlier. Maybe he wasn’t really sleeping after all.

“Sure. Can you stand up and walk, Derek?”

“Why can’t I smell anything from this cap?” Derek ignores your question. You notice he does this a lot.

“Um, maybe because I’ve never used it before. I just got it on my way to town. Don’t ask how. Now come on, I’ll call your friends to help you walk up.” You didn’t have to, though, because Scott and Stiles come rushing towards Derek’s side of the car. They open the door for him and help him all the way to his loft. The girls, Allison and Lydia offer to help you get your stuff, but you politely decline, telling them you’ll only bring up your stuff when Derek agrees to you staying with him for a while. Formality is kind of your thing with strangers.

As you reach the loft, you look around to find a spot in the room you’d be most comfortable to sit…or stand. The loft is almost empty of furniture.

“Make yourself at home, Y/N. You can sit wherever you want,” Stiles offers as if the loft was his. You hear Derek grunt at Stiles in irritation. This makes you smile and say, “Thanks, Stiles. I think I’ll actually wait for Derek to feel comfortable with me being here before I could do that,” You say, not really knowing why you just did. Derek and Stiles look at each other in confusion.

Allison comes to your rescue and asks you to sit beside her on the couch.

“So Y/N, what kind of oil was that that you used to wake Derek up?” Allison asks. This makes Derek look at you in anticipation for an answer.

“Nothing special. It’s made of Californian poppies. It should help relax the nervous system,” You answer Allison.

“But Derek snapped out of paralysis. How is that relaxing his nervous system?” Scott asks you. Derek remains quiet in this conversation, but you could tell that he wants to ask you these questions himself.

“Well, the oil helped relax his nerves.” You feel like you just repeated what you said. “If you’ve held his arms a while ago, you would’ve felt his nerves were kind of like frozen. And his brain, despite its activity, almost felt like it was dead. It’s hard to explain it. But the oil helped his physical body. And…the prayer I kept saying until he woke up was what boosted the effect of the oil. As for the force that actually woke him up, it was a surge of energy coming from me,” You explain, and this makes the room quiet, all eyes on you. You exhale sharply. “Somebody please say something,” You say, and you could almost feel like you’re losing your voice.

“Huh,” Lydia sighs contemplatively. “I thought you said you were an Empath. It looks like that’s not all you are.”

“I come from a family of healers. You should see by now how Deaton and I must know each other. And please don’t ask why I didn’t become a vet like Deaton because he and I heal mystical beings differently.”

“Interesting,” Lydia says and breaks her stare from you.

“Now that we’re all up to speed, could you all let me heal in peace?” Derek changes the subject. The pack agrees to this and tries to leave quietly except for Stiles, of course. They wave you goodbye before heading out.


	2. Chapter 2

“I hope you’re okay with me staying here for a while. Deaton wants me to keep an eye on you,” You say, but don’t get any response or reaction from Derek. “I just need to observe you a little while more. See if you have any more nightmares or something.”

“I think I could handle a few nightmares, Y/N,“ Derek says from his kitchen and drinks some water. He takes off your baseball cap from his head and gives it to you. “Thanks for letting me borrow this.”

“No, you keep it. Consider it a token. Or a lollipop from your doctor.” You retaliate. You hand your card to him and say “Call me when you don’t understand what’s going on with you.” And you offer a handshake. As you shake hands, Derek looks at your eyes sharply and then looks at your hands. He looks like he feels something from the contact.

“What is it?” You ask him. He loses his breath for a bit and this makes you worry because you don’t know what’s about to happen. “Are you okay?” He catches his breath once more and you guide him to the couch to let him relax. “What’s happening, Derek?”

“You should stay here,” He says, making you pull your head back in confusion. “I thought I couldn’t trust you. That’s why I was brushing you off. I’m sorry.”

“You may have a pack and you may be an Alpha, but you’re still a lone wolf, Derek,” You say this conviction. “Don’t worry…That makes two of us,” You say, offering a genuine look at him. “And I don’t mean that you’re an Omega. Are you sure you’re okay? You were losing your breath.”

“There’s something familiar about you, Y/N,” He says to you without breaking eye contact.

“I could say the same, Derek. But I wouldn’t think too much of it,” You say and then decide to change the subject. “Do you have a spare room I could use?”

“Yeah. That one,” Derek points the door behind him. “Opposed to yours is my room,” Derek points the opened door in front of the both of you.

“Great. Thanks. I’ll go get my stuff,” You say to him. Derek offers to help you with your bags, but you tell him you can carry them yourself. After all, he’s not really in a shape that could carry luggage.

By 4 pm, you finish unpacking your things in Derek’s guest room. The loft is so quiet that you now you think that Derek must be sleeping in his room. You bring out all your healing ingredients at the ready, and your journals and documents for your investigative work and decide to do some work on the kitchen table. You bring out your laptop and make some coffee to commence some brainstorming. As the water in the coffee maker boils, you hear a rustling sound coming from Derek’s bedroom. You walk towards it slowly in case he calls for help, but the noise stops. Suddenly he opens the door and appears shirtless. Again. Your presence in front of his bedroom startles the both of you.

“I’m sorry I-I thought I heard some noise and felt some sort of panic from you. Are you okay?” You ask him, and you observe he’s catching his breath again. He swallows in his throat before answering you.

“The coffee pot woke me up. I think my senses are unusually heightened right now,” He finally answers and decides to come out of the room. You go back to the kitchen to wait for your coffee to finish brewing.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” is all you could say.

“It’s fine. Me neither. Are you sure you’re not a werewolf? How could you sense my panic? Do you hear my heartbeat too?” He asks you and sits on the chair in the kitchen table right across your opened laptop. You smile to yourself while you pour some coffee on a mug and answer him.

“No, of course not. But I could feel your strongest emotions. The ones that are surfacing your aura. And that moment, although it wasn’t an emotion, it was strong. I felt your panic. And whenever I feel strong emotions from others, I feel them as my own. On my heightened days, I could feel pulses that aren’t mine too. But I don’t hear them the way you do,” you quietly explain, still considering Derek’s sensitivity to noise.

“You’re something else, aren’t you?” he asks you. You’re not sure what this means but you disagree to this.

“I am what I am, Derek. And I’ve already told you what I am. Just an Empath. I believe Lydia and may have some similarities. We’re both hypersensitive. But I’m no banshee.” You sit in front him. “And…like I’ve said, I come from a family of healers. That’s how I know Deaton. His job as a Druid to supernatural creatures goes hand in hand with healers like myself. We work together in cases like this. Even though Druids do things differently, there’s in fact, a line where our roles work best when we combine them…” You trail off, but notice Derek listening to you intently. You go on.

“People like me, we can’t exactly be healers without being empaths first. I used to visit Beacon Hills when I was a kid. And it was always when there was some sort of emergency. Just like now. We never stayed longer than a day or two. And what I do…it sometimes kills me.” Derek stays silent but keeps eye contact with you.

“Besides, I can sense that’s not what you wanna know anyway. Is it?” Derek has a different question in mind but chooses to ask you something else. He sighs deeply in discomfort because he’s not used to being read so well. He gives in anyway.

“I just can’t understand why I couldn’t smell your scent even when my senses are heightened right now.”

“Could it be that only your hearing is heightened?” You bluff. You know the answer to this.

“No. I could smell all the plants and oils you brought here but it’s only you I couldn’t smell,” he says. “And you’re right here in front of me. I’m starting to think you’re not real and this is a nightmare.”

“You’re overthinking again, Hale” you say, leaning towards him. “You can’t smell my scent because I’ve shielded myself,” you say to him, and he looks down at the table. “Besides, why do you wanna smell my scent?” You ask him with a little smile. He doesn’t say anything, but you save him from embarrassment if there’s any. “Is it a werewolf thing? You need to smell me to see if you could really trust me?” He nods. “You touched my hand already and feeling that you could trust me beats smelling it. I’d say.” Derek doesn’t look at you but shrugs to agree with you.

Evening comes. You’ve barely done any progress with work because research could be a bitch. Derek orders pizza for dinner. In turn, you go out to buy beers to help ease the stranger status. Or maybe elevate it. When you come home, Derek looks all cleaned up. He just took a shower and is wearing only a towel when he decides to walk around the loft. You ask yourself again, do werewolves automatically gain a good physique? You shake your head to snap yourself from your thoughts. What are you doing checking him out anyway?

“I got the beers if you’re up for it,” You walk your way in towards the kitchen.

“I’m up for all of it if that’s okay,” he says from his bedroom, his door still open, and you nod even though he can’t see you. “The pizza will be here soon.” You don’t reply to him on the subject but say “Hey mind if I shower too? I forgot that I haven’t bathed since before I drove all the way here last night. Are you still using the bathroom?”

“No, go ahead,” he says and closes his bedroom door. You grab your towel and your toiletries, including a bag of rock salt and head to the bathroom. You use the rock salt for a salt bath to cleanse yourself away from energies that aren’t yours, and especially those negative ones. You do this every night. You dissolve a handful of salt into the tub with warm water for your salt bath. As you start cleansing yourself, you start to feel physically lighter. The atmosphere around you becomes brighter and your head clearer. The cleansing doesn’t take long and you finish up with showering. When you open the bathroom door, you get frightened because Derek is standing across the bathroom with eyes closed, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Derek? What are you doing?” You ask, feeling creeped out. He opens his eyes and they appear red, like when he was about to turn earlier. You stare at each other for a while since you are frozen from this sight, and then Derek slowly shifts his eyes back to normal. “What the hell happened? Is everything all right?” You ask him. Derek makes a noise moving his head and you could hear his bones breaking. This terrifies you, especially that you are standing on a slippery floor wearing nothing but a towel.

“I could finally smell you,” Derek says with a grunted voice. You swallow on your throat but not say anything. “You are terrified. I could hear your heartbeat.”

“Only because I caught you in your Alpha eyes and for godsakes, I’ve just come out of the shower, Derek. What do you want me to feel?” Derek realizes this but doesn’t say anything. His eyes turn back to normal. You storm off from the bathroom and walk quickly to your room. You slam the door and notice your hands shaking. You take deep breaths, and then you get dressed. You hug your knees while seated on the bed, practically locking yourself in.

Derek is strange and terrifying. You are inside the loft a werewolf who’s probably mentally or emotionally unstable and could have more impulses to turn into a werewolf tonight. Yeah, let’s forget food. It’s better to be hungry than to be eaten, you think all this while you press your mouth onto your arms. You hear a soft knock on the door but ignore it. You’re way inside your head to believe that the knocking was real. But you hear the knocking again. It’s Derek.

“Hey, look, Y/N, I’m sorry about earlier. Please come out now and have some pizza with me. It’s getting cold,” he says from outside your door.

“Are you sure you’re not about to turn soon to eat me?” You say. Your voice trembles at the question. You think it’s a stupid question to ask. Derek is an Alpha and has been a werewolf for years now. But then who knows? Maybe the creature is putting him out of control.

“I promise I won’t turn in front of you unless I need to,” Derek says to you. You could see the shadow of his feet on your doorstep. You don’t say anything but you slowly come out of your room in your pajamas.

“What happened to you earlier? Were you about to turn? It’s not even full moon yet.”

“No. I don’t know…I don’t wanna talk about it. But I’m sorry I scared you, Y/N. I didn’t mean to.”

“Okay… Apology accepted. Are you sure you’re okay? Should I call your friends?” You ask him. He takes a deep breath and smiles at you. “No, don’t. I’m good. Starving, actually,” he says and grabs a slice of pizza. You keep your gaze at him even when he’s not looking anymore; just making sure he’s not about play predator.

“That makes two of us,” You say and follow him outside your room. You both smile at each other as you grab your slice of pizza and start eating. Deep inside though, you still wonder what’s going on with him. The rest of the night turns out better than you’d hoped. The two of you become friends instantly. You learn about his family and the fire in his home. You learn about his sister Laura and how he became Alpha. Derek tells you about his new pack, most of which are humans except for him, Scott, and this boy Isaac. He also asks you about your story, how you knew Deaton in detail, and why you were asked to come to Beacon Hills. You explain everything. No barriers, whatsoever. You’re here to make sure Derek trusts you. You are now seated on the couch, beside and facing each other, still holding your beers. You change the subject now and tell him, “There’s something I should’ve done today at the clinic, but I was afraid I’d see something I couldn’t handle.”

“What is it?” He asks you.

“I should’ve touched your wound. It could give me more answers – images of the creature that attacked you.” Derek keeps his gaze on you and doesn’t say anything back. “But I was scared to actually see what it looked like. That dark figure was already scary enough for me to fall asleep tonight. Nobody could forget an image like that.”

Derek shakes his head. “You don’t need to do it if you’re afraid,” Derek says with a concerned look at you.

“That’s the thing. I need to do it. It’s my job. It’s what I do. But I haven’t seen anything like that. I’m even surprised you haven’t healed from those wounds yet.” You look away and take a sip of your beer.

“Beats me. I can’t decide if my abilities are stronger or weaker right now,” He gazes at you, no longer thinking about the subject you’re in. You look to meet his gaze slowly.

“Maybe not all of your senses are heightened? Like your ability to heal. I’m not sure if I’m right, but isn’t a wound slow to heal only when an Alpha gave it you? And if you’re a beta?” You ask him.

“That sounds about right, but I don’t think that’s the main reason I’m not healing as quickly,” Derek says. He looks at the beer bottle he’s holding. And then he looks at you. He looks so different to you now. Like as if his eyes weren’t brimming red earlier.

“What?” You ask him, and he smiles at you.

“You’re not shielded right now, are you?” you smile back and shake your head bashfully, thinking he actually noticed. “I just wished you didn’t shield at all this whole time.” You could feel him flirting with you, even though what he said didn’t sound like flirting. “How do you shield anyway? You’re not exactly wearing any metal armor or something.”

You keep your smile on. “We’re not exactly in the Dark Ages, are we, Derek?” You attempt a joke but you fail. You don’t know why you’re so terrible at this, but you’re relieved that Derek doesn’t roll his eyes at you.

“I don’t know if you can see the shield when you turn into a werewolf, but when I’m shielded, I usually have a large, bright, golden bubble around me. That’s what keeps me safe from unwanted energies that could easily bring me to an emotional state that I could barely handle.” Derek doesn’t say anything so you could go on.

“In order to make that shield, I meditate every day and build the shield with energy coming from my heart. It’s kind of like what I did to you today until you woke up. Except that, I didn’t shield you, but I uh…I lit you with a bright energy so you could wake up. You were having nightmares. You were covered in darkness back there.” Your gaze at him doesn’t break, and silence comes after that. You could feel the tension building up between you two. It feels like you never know what this man is thinking. You don’t know if it’s the booze or that you have been subconsciously attracted to the man in front of you.

You notice his green eyes look at yours, and they move from there to your lips, and then back to your eyes again. You do the same because you couldn’t resist it. And you’re starting to feel something in the insides of your core. You notice that Derek senses this…or worse, smells your arousal. If at all, you know this is a bad idea. You’re here for work, not to mess around with work. Yet, Derek puts his beer on the coffee table and moves closer to you. You know he feels the same way. You now feel like you couldn’t breathe, and you could feel your heart pounding in your chest. Then you turn away, breaking the tension. You hear him breathe sharply.

“I’m – I’m sorry,” You say, but you don’t know what to say next.

“No, I’m sorry,” he says as he strokes his fingers across his dark hair. “I couldn’t help it. Your scent is…too irresistible,” Derek tells you, and you’re surprised he’s this honest about it. You look at him smiling, covering your mouth.

“Is this how you invite women to sleep with you, Derek?” You tease him.

“And what, tell them I’m a werewolf? Of course not. It’s just that, you’re a lot more attractive now without your shield. Not that you weren’t the first time I saw you. “ You remember seeing his crimson eyes the first time and it makes you look away. “Wait…Did I scare you?” He moves closer to you as he asks you this.

“I know you didn’t mean to. You were in a defensive state. But I kind of saw how you’d look like if you turned. And it…terrified me.” You look at your bare feet on the floor, hesitating to look at him. You can feel Derek move closer to you, but you feel that it’s safe.

“I’m sorry. I don’t want you to be terrified of me. Hey…look at me,” Derek says. His voice is low, it actually draws you to him. Your head is resting on your left hand, your left elbow resting on your left leg. You don’t change positions but you move your head to your right to look at Derek in the eyes. They are deep. If eyes really are the windows to the soul, then you can see the kind of soul he has. Close to being broken, what with the death of his family; but his heart emanates a good energy, one that tells you that he wants to share it with you. He now leans much closer to you. Words are about to come out of his mouth and you swallow on your throat for whatever he would say.

“I like it that you didn’t shield yourself again,” He whispers to you, and kisses you gently on the lips. Your head still tilted down. You kiss him back, now holding the stubble of his jaw. Then your arousal rises, and your heart is pounding again, but you don’t mind it. You kiss him anyway. You kiss passionately, both of you losing your breath in the process. “Hmm…You actually taste better than you smell,” He kisses you again, you smile and get your teeth and lips kissed.

“I don’t know if I should take that as a compliment.” Your words are muffled by his desperate kisses. “You should, Y/N. I’d love to immerse myself in your scent so badly.” He kisses your neck and carries you up you to sit on his lap. You let him kiss you where he wants. Your hands pace his dark hair, and when he plants a hickey on your chest, you pull his hair unknowingly and straddle your warm core to his member and feel it already hard for you. Derek rushes to reach the hem of your shirt and immediately takes it off of you, praising your naked torso and kisses every inch of your breasts, licking as hard as he could. He sucks your nipples, one after the other. You moan softly and repeatedly, and this drives him crazy. He goes to reach your lips again, pressing your breasts to his chest.

You help him take off his shirt and he does so willingly and pulls you back to kiss him. You notice his wounds and this makes you stop. You don’t say anything but look at him with concern and think that maybe this is a bad idea. “I’m fine. It hasn’t hurt since I started kissing those perfect lips of yours,” He says and stares at your mouth, touching your lower lip with his thumb before kissing it again passionately.

He caresses the curves of your back and moves his hands down to your ass. You feel his tender hands squeeze them, bringing you the closest you could be to him. Your breasts touch his lean chest and your nipples harden as he kneads your right one as he kisses and licks your neck vigorously. You pant heavily and ask him “Hey, do you wanna move to the bedroom?” He places his forehead against yours and looks at you with craving eyes then nods at you. He carries you while walking and still kissing your lips. He gently lays you on his bed and then he takes off his pants and exposes his boxers. You bite your lower lip at the sight of him undressing and then he smirks at you.

“You’re taking yours off too, sweetheart,” He teases you as he kneels on all fours on the bed to kiss you.

“You take it off…Alpha.” You tease him back and cup his face as you pull him towards you so you could lay on your back.

“Huh, not so scared anymore, are we, Y/N?” He says as he kisses you, and brings his hands on your ass, pulling your pajamas off your legs.

“I know you won’t hurt me.” You pause to kiss him. “At least, not unless I ask you to.” You bite your lower lip and pull him in to kiss you again. He chuckles as he kisses you hungrily. You kiss his neck and then move to lick his earlobe as you push up your hips to his, him straddling your core. His soft moans make you want him more. His touches are never rough on you. His hand travels down to the inside of your panties. His fingers exploring the warm folds of your core. “How long have you been this wet, Y/N?”

“I’ll tell you if you tell me how long you’ve been hard for me,” You reach his pointing cock, teasing him while patting kisses on his lips. He shakes his head in disbelief and smiles at you amusingly.

“I didn’t expect this dirty side of you, Y/N. I love it,” Derek says and growls as he kisses you hard now while his hands work on your clit. You laugh at this and your moans get louder and sharper. This makes him take off your panties abruptly and kiss you on the lips and down to your neck, and your breasts, devouring on all your curves before he brings your legs up to his shoulders and cups your now bare ass. He licks and sucks on the thighs between your folds while rubbing your throbbing clitoris. Finally, he dives his tongue into your wet folds and licks the world of it. You gently run your hands through his hair, getting a semi-tight grip on them. His stubbled cheeks tickle the thighs between your folds and it makes you laugh and moan. He works you up some more while he takes off his boxers and starts working on himself while his other hand squeezes your thigh, keeping your folds where he wants them.

You grab the resting pillow beside you and bite on its tip trying to keep yourself from screaming out of pleasure, while your other hand stays on Derek’s now messy hair. All of a sudden, Derek stops and comes close to your face. You look at him and wipe his wet mouth of your fluids. He whispers in your ear then, “Don’t hold yourself back. I want to know if I’m doing you a good job.” This startles you a little. But it sends shivers down to your spines. “Scream my name, Y/N. Cum for me.” Before you could give him a kiss, he rushes back to kneel on the floor and brings you further to the edge of the bed so he could eat you out more. He pulls back your thighs towards him and spanks your ass before licking your folds again.

He has now worked you both on warm sweat. He grabs a condom from his side table drawer and wears it on him. Once he’s done, he kisses your lips once more and moves down to lick your folds again, and then teases you with his member’s head caressing your folds. You both let out a very soft moan, and you look at each other intently as he starts to go inside your soft, warm folds. His jaw drops as he feels your tightness, and you watch him move above you, hitting you in all the right places, and never breaking from your gaze. The experience amplifies when he gets a hold of both your hands and entwine them with his. The electric feeling from your clasped hands gets you to close your eyes. You squeeze his hand as he now moves roughly on you, his hands almost slipping from yours as the sweat from his arms reach his palms.

Finally, he turns you over so he’s the one laying on his back and you get your chance to ride him. You guide his tip to your warm opening and you put the weight of your hands on his chest. Derek covers his eyes and keeps his lips parted in awe as you pace yourself swiftly above him.

“Fuck,” Derek says under his breath and looks at you. You keep your momentum going and make your pace faster, making you lean on him so you could work your hips on him. He keeps his mouth dropped at this, and you smile at him while biting your lowing lip. This excites him more and holds your waist intact so he could move under you. He wraps his arms around you now while you let him keep his pace and fuck your throbbing insides. The both of you are moaning each other’s names, catching your breaths.

Derek turns your back to the bed. “Y/N…cum for me.” He whispers in your ear while he moves above you roughly. You hold his face and train your eyes on his. “Make me cum, Derek.” Your eye contact doesn’t break as he picks up his pace, now moving fast and hitting your spot much harder. You now look at him with your brows coming together, indicating a nearing explosion in your core. You notice Derek’s member inside you also reaching its peak, as you both moan together and muttering words of pleasure. You finally cum and say his name when you do. Derek smiles at this menacingly and pulls out, ejecting his cum. He looks at you while he does this, and you’re still trying to get a sense of the world again, reliving the moment of pleasure you hadn’t expected would arise. You bite your lower lip as you look at him menacingly, and you decide to touch yourself and see just how wet you are. You smile at each other and there’s an understanding between you two, that a bond seems to have been formed.

You don’t say anything and you’re still touching yourself. Derek removes the condom from his cock and puts it away. He then looks at you, then watches you touch yourself. You don’t know why, but you still want to keep seducing this werewolf even after making love. And he lets you. “You make me want to feast on you,” He says and brings himself to kiss your lips. “You make me wanna touch myself over and over,” you say and then bring your fingers to his mouth. He gladly licks them, showing you how much he still wants you. You kiss him after removing your fingers from his mouth, also getting a good taste of yourself.

“I’m starting to wonder why I haven’t met you much earlier,” He kisses you all over your face as he gently brushes his fingers on the side of your hair, bringing locks behind your ear. You cover yourself with a blanket as you start to feel cold. The warmth of your sex is now slowly dissipating. You care to look at him with sincerity. You cup his stubbled jaw and then kiss him slowly, sending him genuine affection.

“That’s because I wasn’t supposed to yet.” You answer him in a low voice. You’re sensing that there’s more to Derek’s words than meets the eye. You give him traces of affection. You caress his face softly and look at his eyes, giving your full attention to him. “Whatever happened to you the past, might’ve had to happen.” He doesn’t say anything to you, but his look is giving himself away. You could feel your heart breaking; the pain seems permanent to you. “Derek, I don’t want to pry. But I’m getting a feeling that this is about Kate Argent. Is it?” His jaws are clenching. He’s now back to his usual self – silent, emotions repressed and guarded. Despite his hesitance to share, he nods at your question lightly.

“Do you feel guilty?” You know he does. He feels guilty for being used as an accessory to his family’s murder without him knowing. For falling prey to the enemy. Derek nods at you lightly again, never saying anything back. He gently grabs your hand and brings it to his lips to kiss. You carry yourself up to embrace him. “You shouldn’t.” You pull yourself back to look at him and hold the sides of his head and neck. “It wasn’t your fault that you trusted her. We all get fooled some time in our lives, Derek. And it’s always when we disregard our instincts. You were young. Totally susceptible to deception. Even with your werewolf senses. Now, please…” You trail off as you give him another kiss. He kisses you back but more passionately.

“I forgot to ask you something. You don’t…always do this at work, do you, Y/N?” He changes the subject. You chuckle at his tease. “That’s a good start to divert your attention. And if you think I invest my time, my energy, and my womanhood for any gorgeous man –“ Your sentence breaks as you hold his face. Your voice softens. “Or werewolf, who tells me they love my scent, then you are wrong, mister.” You kiss him again. “As far as I’m concerned, we broke down our walls together tonight.”

“And why do you think is that?”

“I’m prepared to explain, sweetheart, but I’d like to tell you in the morning. I just realized I haven’t slept for more than 24 hours now, and we’ve just had an amazing sex.” Your words are muffled as you kiss him again. “And I’ve got a whole day of work tomorrow,” you say, preparing yourself to lay down and cuddle with him.

“Hmm.” He says and lays beside you. He plants kisses on your nape and shoulders. “Let me know if you’re taking a break, so I could relieve you from tension. Or build it. If you want.”

You turn to him at your back and say, “You’re working with me tomorrow. We’re gonna find out what creature that is. But I don’t mind taking a break with you,” you kiss him while pulling the back of his head towards you. Derek’s kisses are filled with smiles and then he finally lets you turn away to doze off. Derek closes his eyes as he keeps his arms around your naked torso and then he falls asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Morning breaks and you wake up before Derek does. You wake up facing him. His calm breathing brings you to close your eyes again to savor the moment. Then you open your eyes again to watch him sleep. He’s on the right side of the bed so his right arm is resting on the side of your stomach. You think of what happened the day before, and you’re surprised you only slept for three, maybe four hours. You know you need more than that. You notice the sun outside is making its way to light the foggy town of Beacon Hills. As you stare at Derek’s face and notice the smallest of his pores, the lines of his lips, and those closed eyes you know you love when they’re opened.

You are not entirely surprised that you and Derek have gone from strangers to lovers in less than twenty-four hours. Derek was not hard to like even though he’s grumpy around Stiles and the rest of the pack. His smiles must be a rare sight for most people. Maybe you don’t need to be empathic to understand the dynamics of his personality. Your family guardian always told you not to judge people by their looks. And so as young as six years old, you’ve learned to trust your gut and feeling towards people than how they appear to be. This helped you a lot to be an Empath, ensuring a close working relationship with Druids to supernatural creatures. Deaton for one is a close friend of your family’s.

You now slowly get out of bed to get the pajamas you wore the night before, and your shirt that was left on the couch. Then you, go to your room to get your yoga mat. Meditating is the first thing you do so you could get your focus on the day’s objectives, and so you remind yourself to be careful with hostile energies you might fail to spot. You ground yourself in meditation and start to bring forth a bright energy from your heart. Sitting Indian style, you keep your hands resting on the side of your knees. With your back aligned to the sky, you keep your eyes closed and commence your shielding.

Derek wakes up and quietly peers at you from the doorway of his bedroom. You don’t notice this, but Derek lets his eyes glow as he watches you. He then notices the surge of energy coming from your chest, making a circular movement around you. He has never seen anything like it before. His lips part as he continues watching you perform your morning ritual. The bright light has ribbons of it, surrounding you in circling motion, getting brighter each time. This goes on a moment longer. The ribbons of energy gradually disappear, making a balanced color of a ball around you and when they stop circling, you open your eyes. You now notice Derek’s presence behind you and you turn around to look at him. You meet his green-eyed gaze and give him a sweet smile.

“Hey,” You say and stand up from the mat.

“Hi.” Derek walks towards and you meet halfway in the room. He leans in for a kiss and brushes your cheek softly. “Why did you put on your shield before I woke up? I wanted to smell your scent first thing today,” He whispers while locking his gaze on you, his forehead resting on the top of your head. You bring both your arms around his neck and kiss him again, this time more sensually.

“I can let you in on my shield if you really want to smell my scent so bad. All you need is ask.” You say and kiss him again. You and Derek couldn’t stop kissing each other. It would be nice to just stay home and laze the day away, but you remember you’re in Beacon Hills for a bigger reason.

“Let me in on it, Y/N. I can’t get enough of it. Of you.” Derek pulls you up to cling on his stomach so he could kiss you without leaning over. He puts you down and he devours your neck while caressing your back. This warms your chest so you carry yourself against him, letting him kiss you more. You embrace him tightly and let him in on your shield. Derek has his eyes closed when he grasps your scent. And when he does, he opens his Alpha eyes and notices he’s inside your shield with you. He looks around him and notices the drops of yellow light hovering you both.

“Is this how it looks like all the time?”

“Yes. But I can only see it with my eyes closed,” You tell him. You kiss him again. “Get all the scent you want, because eventually, I’ll need you to get back out of my shield.” Derek exhales sharply, disagreeing to this, but respects your decision anyway. He brings himself to your neck again, and then smells your hair, tracing the berry shampoo you used last night, and then he trails his way to your chest, tracing his own sweat that dispersed in your skin. He loves it that you still have his scent. He loves how his own scent blends with yours. He grabs your hands and runs his nose and lips on your forearms, ending it on the back of your hands, and he finally lets you cup his face and kiss your palms. You’re not used to this kind of physical gesture – a man smothering his mouth and nose all over your skin to inhale your scent.

He leans to kiss you and inhales deeply when he does, giving you a deep kiss while ingesting the smell of your nose, your mouth, and your breath. His deep kiss turns you on all of a sudden. He grins menacingly at you, smelling your arousal.

“Ignore it, you big bad wolf.” You grin back at him when you say this. “You know we have work to do.” You really want him to take you again, but you can see the kitchen table still piled with your files and books and remember you barely got to work on anything last night. He groans, refusing to return to reality. You want to do the same. You stay in his gaze and you share a comfortable silence for a few seconds.

“I’m gonna regret it if I let you get away with that arousal,” Derek says and this builds the tension between the two of you even stronger, his hands reach your ass and squeeze them gently but firmly. But before you could go on, Derek’s phone rings and ruins the moment. Derek grunts and sighs sharply. You keep your face close to him, still holding him.

“It must be important,” you point your fingers to his bedroom for him to pick up his phone and then he goes inside his bedroom to answer it. You then go back to your yoga mat to put it away and then head to the kitchen to prepare some coffee. You prefer keeping Derek’s phone conversation to himself but you hear him responding vaguely.

“Yeah…she’s fine…No, I didn’t remember anything…okay, we’ll be right over.” Sounds like a plan, you think to yourself. “Y/N…” Derek calls you from his bedroom and then you see him come out. “That was Scott.There was a killing last night.” This draws a grimace on your face. The both of you start getting ready for the day. You were arranged to meet the pack back in Deaton’s clinic. Before that, Derek asks you to pick up one of his betas, Isaac Lahey. You pull over at the Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital and see a tall, dirty blonde teenager with a glare that you could feel is examining you. He looks at Derek who’s seated beside you in the front. He opens the door and you turn your head to watch him come in.

“Hey,” The young man greets you both and you smile awkwardly at him and turn your head back straight. “Who’s the broad?” Derek growls at him while giving him a cold glare. It startles Isaac and shuts him up. This makes you smile but you do your best to hide it and instead, you offer Isaac a warmer smile to break the ice.

“I’m Y/N. I’m here to help.” Isaac smiles back at you as he glances at Derek, making sure he hasn’t crossed over barriers between you two. You then put your car in reverse to get back on the driveway. “Is there anyone else we need to pick up?” You ask Derek and he doesn’t say anything but he shakes his head, looking at you again with those kind eyes that weren’t there seconds ago. You nod at him and start driving.

***

You now arrive at Deaton’s clinic. The rest of the pack are already there. As you walk inside with Derek and Isaac, the look that Scott gives you and Derek bothers you. Scott’s eyebrows meet as he glances at you and Derek two more times. No words need to be exchanged between the three of you. Scott knows. Scott fucking knows that something happened between you and Derek last night. This heats your cheeks but you choose to ignore it. Ignore and deny, if you’re ever confronted. You don’t have time to play kiss and tell. You take a quick glance at Derek to see his reaction at Scott’s look. It’s amazing how this guy could pull up a flat affect when an hour ago he was smelling your skin, being all levels of romantic and sexy. You think about this, but you realize you could do the same. Looks like you and Derek are on the same page on this.

Inside the clinic, you see an unconscious man lying on the metal table. Shirtless, exposing how badly wounded he is. Even worse than Derek’s wounds the first time you saw him in the same position. You could already feel the wrath he was in. As you slowly walk towards the body, you could already feel the fear the man had before his last breath of life. It’s unbearable and your heart starts to pound inside your chest. You are nearing a break of tears because what this man went through, how he died, he did not deserve it. Derek, Scott, and Isaac all look at you as you fight back your tears and start having sharp breaths. You know they could hear your heartbeat.

“Hey, what’s going on with her?” Isaac asks. Derek moves closer to you and motions to touch your back.

“Are you okay?” Derek whispers at you. Your brows meet as you catch your breath. “Please don’t touch me.” This startles Derek. “Don’t take it the wrong way. This is part of my job. Just let me be. We’ll figure out what happened to him.” Derek steps back. You turn your focus on the unconscious man. You take deep breaths to normalize your pulse so that you could tune in to your empathic trance. 

“I’ll be okay, you guys.” You turn around to face the group. You give them a warning of what could happen in a few moments. “You might see me cry, or scream. But don’t worry. It happens all the time. If anyone feels uncomfortable with that, you can leave the room for a while. But I’ll need someone here to listen to what I’ll say because I might not remember it.” The room is dead silent but you know everyone heard you loud and clear; and nobody has the intention to stay away. Instead, you eye each of them and they all nod once at you, letting you know they’re here to stay. You nod back at them and turn to the body. 

You take a heavy breath and hold the man’s hand, just like you did with Derek. This time you won’t hesitate to touch the wounds if you need to.

The man’s palm is cold, but nevertheless still reminiscent of terror from the numbness of his veins and nerves. You feel all of his uncontainable fear. You unknowingly close your eyes and, in an instant, you reach your empathic trance. The man was jogging in the woods late at night, running his frustrations off. He had just lost his job and he doesn’t know how to get through the rest of the month to pay bills and feed himself and his daughter. Deep concern draws on your face. The pack surrounds you and the man in a circle as they watch you work.

You start to hear what the man heard as your trance deepens. Whatever you see now, you narrate to the group. He ran two miles into woods, maybe feeling like he was going around it. He heard someone follow him but was moving swiftly. This scared the hell out of him and ran faster. Out of nowhere, that dark creature appeared in front him, roaring at him to scare him and basically put him off his feet. On two feet, the monster stood like a grizzly bear would, but then put down his claws and walked towards the man as he continued to roar at him. The creature was hairy. It had teeth more than a bear might have, and fangs like a snake have. Its eyes glowed a bright yellow. It wounded the man to death with its big, long, sharp claws. Not even giving him a chance to be paralyzed at least. The creature wanted him dead. 

The man screamed in agony for his life. For the pain in his chest; his organs being torn apart, his ribs, broken into pieces. The unbearable pain the creature has caused him sent him desperate cries for help. He lost so much blood and was practically left half-dead. He didn’t endure the pain. He lost his life feeling the worst pain his body has ever had.

You open your eyes and notice your face is warm and cold at the same time. Cold from the tears that hadn’t stopped falling from your eyes. You find your breath when you see Derek in front of you, looking at you a little worriedly. You see your hand resting over the dead man’s wounds that are much larger than your own fingers. This is why you’ve seen, heard, and felt all of the man’s last moments. The wounds always tell you where they came from. 

Your heart starts to sink as you feel this is all your fault. The room has remained quiet, everyone awaiting your words. But no one rushes you to speak. They watched your tears stream down your face as you described what you saw, heard, and felt in detail. You drew them quite the perfect picture. Your eyes remain in the dead man. Your heart is breaking again, seeing the dead man in brand new eyes.

If you had done the same thing to Derek yesterday, then maybe they could’ve stopped this creature from killing an innocent man. Derek was lucky to be alive because he’s a werewolf, but this man wasn’t. This man was perfectly human and unable to fight back. What about his daughter? Who would take care of her? These thoughts ramble on your mind as you remove your hands from the man’s body and walk to the sink to wash up. The group discusses this case. Why did it kill the man? Why did it seem like it knew the man? It may be more in control now than it was the night before. These questions fill the conversation inside the clinic and you remain silent, still trying to remove the memory of the killing. You thought you’d forget about it, but it’s all you could think of.

You get out of the clinic to gather yourself. You could use some Beacon Hills air. The view before you helps you ground yourself. There are countless trees and bushes. Some trees with thick trunks, some thin. You’re not sure if the woods you see is part of the preserve that the Hales own. But it doesn’t matter. That man probably ran the trails you see from where you stand. You shake your head and look down. You want to stop thinking about what happened to him.

After a few minutes, Derek goes outside to join you. You greet him only with a dry look. It’s clear you haven’t recovered completely from your trance just yet. “You know, sometimes I wish my shields work like metal,” You start off, trying to slowly get yourself off of those horrific memories from a while ago. Derek’s breath creates a vapor out of his mouth. Your hands are in your jacket’s pockets, and you keep your eyes locked on the sight of the woods.

“Remember when I said sometimes what I do kills me?” You pause to look at Derek in the eyes. “This is one of those times. And I can’t help but feel helpless. And guilty.” Derek remains silent, just letting you talk. The pack gets out of the clinic to see you and Derek. They catch you still in your train of thought and words.

“The world around you just crumbles and you’re either wasting time trying to figure things out, like solving this fucking mystery…” you trail off. Your throat starts to feel tight as you feel like tears are about to come out of your eyes again. “While evil lurks right below your nose.” You say as you shake your head. You breathe deeply and realize you’re mentally back on your feet, and you face all of them. You wipe your eyes and smile weakly at the pack.

“I’m sorry. I just never understand why power has to come from killing the innocent.” You look at each of them with conviction. They return your look with acknowledgment. Scott steps toward you and taps your shoulder.

“Hey. We all feel the same, Y/N. What happens to these innocent people is never fair. But we do what we can. We always try to save everyone.” Scott assures you.

“Even if sometimes what we need to do is completely impossible. But we do them,” Lydia adds, pressing her red lips together.

“Hell, we risk our lives for these people all the time,” Allison steps in.

“And risk our family in the process,” Stiles says.

“Or even lose them,” Isaac says; his voice breaking.

“These kids are braver than they look, Y/N,” Derek finally says. “Sometimes stupid but…” he trails off and gives them that rare smile. “They’re tough enough to face the consequences.” You finally smile. Derek now stands beside you. “Hey. You were awesome back there. Don’t ever think that you weren’t any help, or that it was your fault that that man died.”

Scott, Stiles, Isaac, Allison, and Lydia glance at each other awkwardly, noticing the warm atmosphere you and Derek share. Derek notices that and shoots a glare at them. They pretend to forget what they just thought of.

You inhale deeply to refresh yourself. “You guys save the day all the time and still do homework,” You say, now smiling at them.

“And play lacrosse, and take care of our single parents, by the way,” Stiles adds. Derek’s eyes dart at him, warning him not to add more sarcasm to what he just said.

“Yeah, you do.” You commend them with a proud look.

“How ‘bout you kids get to school now, and Y/N and will look on this creature today? You can still make it to the second period,” Derek suggests.

“I thought all of us were gonna do this together?” Stiles asks, totally disregarding that it’s actually a Monday.

“Dude, we have a Chemistry test today.” Scott slaps Stiles on the back.

“Aww shit,” Stiles says and rushes to his Jeep to start the engine. Isaac follows them and rides to school with them. Lydia and Allison bid you farewell and head to school in Allison’s car.

“Derek, call us if you find anything,” Scott shouts from the Jeep with his head out the window. Derek nods at him and waves him farewell once. That leaves you both in the parking lot. You let Deaton know your plans to research at Derek’s loft and maybe find clues in the woods.

You and Derek start walking towards the woods. He’s leading when you reach the entrance, but he stops and looks at you. You stop as well to look at him and then find him offering his hand for you to hold. Those kind green eyes show up again, sending unexplainable sensations to your chest. You can’t help but draw a small smile and take his hand. Once your hands touch, the world around you changes a little. Okay, maybe it’s just your mood. But everything instantly feels better now. You’re about to overthink things and before you could, you stop yourself. The smile on your face hasn’t disappeared yet. When you glance over to look at Derek’s profile, he’s already smiling. He lets you look at him a second longer, and glances back at you, tightening his grip on your hand. Both of you walk the woods never breaking contact. He helps you climb and jump steep slopes. This walk begins to feel like a date than an actual search.

“What are we looking for exactly?” He asks you.

“Anything unusual. Not another dead body, I hope. That creature is probably hiding out here somewhere,” You say to him. You start to think it may be a bad idea.

“Then maybe we shouldn’t be out here,” Derek says and halts. “Maybe we should just head back to my place and we could look on your books instead. Not here. I don’t know yet if I could protect you from that thing.” He grabs your other hand. Now it really feels like you two are a couple. You shake your head and refocus your mind. You consider what he says and look at the distance behind him to gather your words. But you notice something.

“Do you see that?” You ask him. Your eyes are glued to that white thing you see on the ground about 5 feet away from where you and Derek stand. Derek turns around to look and is perplexed by the sight. The two of you rush towards it.

“It’s a snake skin.” You confirm what you saw. You immediately bring out your phone to call Deaton. Derek remains silent, probably trying to smell off the scent of the snake. “Doc, we found a snakeskin here. We would’ve left it alone but, it’s in the shape of a human.” You end the call. Deaton told you he’ll come over to check it out. When he does, he’s already bringing a plastic bag to contain the shed skin. The three of you head back to the animal clinic.

“It must’ve shed its skin here last night,” Deaton says as he examines the skin. “But it’s not like a Kanima’s. When Jackson was about to transform, he covered himself inside a cocoon. And this creature didn’t. This creature shed its skin like most snakes do.”

“Wait, isn’t it that snakes shed their skin to allow growth of the body?” You ask him.

“That’s right. And it makes sense. This creature could be young. Younger snakes tend to shed their skin more frequently than older ones,” Deaton says.

“How frequently are you saying?” Derek asks.

“Once in two weeks. Sometimes even once a week,” Deaton answers him. You and Derek look at each other. “This may be its first shedding since it was bitten.”

“Can you tell if it’s not actually a Kanima?” You ask.

“It can’t be,” Derek says. “It didn’t have the eyes of a Kanima, remember? No slits on its eyes.”

“You’re right. I forgot,” You say, bringing your fingers to your forehead. “Maybe we should go home. I’ll see what I can find in my books.” You turn to Deaton. He tells you that he’ll examine the skin closely and will let you know whatever comes up.


	4. Chapter 4

It’s lunch period in school by now. Derek calls Scott on the phone to tell him about your discovery. You and Derek drive back to his loft on your car. Your mind still occupied with the mystery. You waste no time and head to your books once you arrive at Derek’s loft. You have more than ten titles stacked up on Derek’s kitchen table. From Greek mythology to the mystic arts, and basic references such as zoology and botany.

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Derek says walks over to the kitchen table and glances at the opened books. “But wouldn’t it be easier for you if all this information were digital?” You stop reading and look up at him. 

“I know what you mean. These botany books would be better if they were digital or googled. But I inherited these from my family. That’s how I formulated the oil I used to wake you up. These books may look ordinary, but they’re one of a kind,” You plainly say, and Derek just nods at you. “Believe me, I’d like to pack light, but my job doesn’t exactly let me. I’m like a witch doctor,” You say with a disgusted expression on your face.

“A very beautiful witch doctor,” Derek says and stands behind you, massaging your back. You move your head around and quietly enjoy the comfort in your shoulders with Derek’s hands. 

“Thank you,” You whisper and look up at him. He doesn’t say anything but he bends his back to kiss you. It’s a sweet kiss – one he hasn’t given you yet before because you could still remember how lustful his kisses were that morning and the night before. But this one is pure, gentle, and saying everything he wants to say to you: that he’s delighted to have you around. After that kiss, you smile at each other and you grab his hand to lead him to sit beside you. He helps you read on mystical creatures, trying to find as many leads as possible.

At around 2 PM, Derek dozes off on the couch while you stay working. An hour passes, and you decide to take a short break and your attention goes to Derek who is reclined sleeping. You notice the skin around his eyes are a little darker than usual and his eyes are moving while closed. You think he must be in his REM cycle. When you walk towards him, you can feel something’s different. You look at him closely and hold his arm, and then you panic right away because his nerves are frozen, just like when you first saw him. You call his name repeatedly to wake him up but he doesn’t wake up. You shake his shoulders and try to bring him to sit up, but he’s a dead weight. You immediately rush to your room to get your oil and try the same procedure you did the first time.

You rub oil on his palms, forehead, and chest. This time, you put on more and put some on the opening of his nostrils. You state your prayers as you close your eyes and put a force on his glabella (the skin between his eyebrows) using your thumb and stroke upward. You do this repeatedly and eventually gain a reaction from his body after four tries. You know that the next stroke you do in his head would probably wake him up, and he might turn into a werewolf this time because no one is holding him back. But you do anyway. This time you stroke his glabella in a circular motion, before pressing your stroke upward. As your thumb releases its touch from his forehead, Derek’s crimson eyes open and his fangs appear before you. He roars as if he is being tortured. 

This brings goosebumps into your spine and arms, but you are frozen from shock. Derek keeps roaring at you. His face is turning to its werewolf form and this is your cue. He might attack you any time if you don’t move away, so you take a few steps back from him, already panting. Your heartbeat is rising quickly. You ‘re thinking of what to do. Your jar of mountain ash is in your room, and you know you’ll probably be dead before you could reach your room. Derek has his searing red eyes on you. He is still hostile, and you decide to do what you normally would never do in the face of danger.

You turn off your shield. Completely. The ribbons of gold gradually disperse from its circle, revealing your aura. Then you slowly walk back towards him. “Derek? It’s me…Y/N. I won’t hurt you. You’re safe here.” Derek doesn’t change back but is no longer in panicked rage. You continue walking. Your knees are shaking but you keep going. Your heartbeat is calming down. When you reach the couch, your hands reach for Derek’s face. “It’s okay, Derek. It’s just me,” You whisper.

Derek lets you touch his werewolf face. When the fingers of your left hand reach the stubble of his face, Derek closes his eyes and savors your touch. His face slowly turns back to its human form as your right hand touches his forehead, and slowly moving down to his jaws. When he opens his eyes, they’re green again. And kind. And apologetic. He holds both your hands while they’re still on his face.

“I’m sorry…” He kisses your palms and breathes sharply to inhale your scent. “I could’ve killed you.”

“But you didn’t,” You say to him in a low voice. “You didn’t even attack me.”  
“I’m pretty sure it’s your scent that calms me. It’s what reminded me that I’m awake. And alive,” Derek says and kisses your hands again. You lean forward to him to give him a meaningful kiss. To let him know that it’s okay and that you understand him.

“Can we talk about what happened to you in your sleep? What were you dreaming about?” You ask him in a low voice, still gentle as ever. He nods at you and brings you to sit beside him. You are now facing each other seated on the couch. He is on the right edge of it, and you are seated at the center of the couch, with your legs resting on it. 

“It happens over and over. But I know it shouldn’t because I was never there. I wasn’t home when our house was burned down.”

“What happens over and over?” You ask him.

“I am just there in the house, burning along with the rest of my family. When I’m at the last moment of my life, my last breath, I wake up inside my dream and the house is burning again. Like it’s on loop,” Derek says looking down.

“Do you remember seeing anything unusual? Like a number? An animal? A color? Or anything that you just keep noticing you see in the dream?” You ask and Derek searches the memory in his mind. He nods at you.

“There was always a snake track. Whenever I went to find an exit, there was always a snake track on the floor.” Your conversation gets interrupted when the front door slides open. Scott, Stiles, and Lydia come inside the loft.

“What happened?” Scott immediately asks. He probably sensed that something happened shortly before they came in.

“He had another episode of nightmares. He turned when he woke up. But he’s fine now. He’s just telling me about it,” You reply, not changing positions or avoiding being close to Derek. 

“Sounds like Derek has to tell mommy about his bad dreams,” Stiles jokes as he grabs a bottle of juice from the fridge. Derek makes a grunting sound directed to Stiles.

“Don’t you have your own fridge to raid at home, Stiles?” Derek retorts. You stay out of this as much as you can.

“Actually, for someone who lives like savages, your fridge is pretty much more stocked than my Dad’s. So, no,” Stiles answers back and drinks the bottle of juice in front of Derek. Derek breathes sharply without leaving his gaze on Stiles.

“Derek, we need to keep going. We need to go further into your dream. So, snake tracks?” You try to get back at the task at hand.

“Wait, what’s going on? What snake tracks?” Scott asks. He is now seated on the table in front of the couch. Lydia walks around the loft, looking around the empty spaces of it while listening to the conversation.

“Well, Derek has been having a repetitive nightmare. He said he was in the house fire with his family being burned alive,” You say to Scott. 

“But he wasn’t home when that happened,” Scott says.

“But in his dream, he is. And it happens over and over again after he dies in it,” You say.

“He dies in the dream?” Lydia asks, her head turns to you when she is facing the loft’s massive window.

“Yeah. It felt real. And then I wake up again from death and then die again,” Derek adds.

“But then he keeps seeing snake tracks inside the house. It may be a clue about the creature that paralyzed him,” You say.

“Wait, couldn’t we get Scott to see Derek’s dreams or memories when he was attacked? Why didn’t we do that in the first place?” Stiles asks.

“Because only an Alpha can do that,” Scott answers Stiles.

“And Derek, who happens to be the only Alpha we have right now, is the victim. Great,” Stiles says and puts his hand over his neck.

“That’s why I’m here. We’re gonna have to retrace his memories and his dreams manually,” You tell them.

“Manually?” The pack asks altogether. You nod at them and say, “Yeah. We’ll need to put Derek to sleep again to trigger his dreams, but only when he doesn’t remember any more signs, like the snake tracks. Now can we get back to that for now please?” You say to them. Everyone doesn’t say anything but nods and lets you get back to your conversation. “Derek, do the snake tracks lead you somewhere?” 

“I don’t know. I just remember seeing them wherever I go inside the house.”

“Maybe there really was a snake on the night of the fire?” Lydia suggests.

“We can’t say for sure. And I doubt that this has anything to do with the actual incident,” You say to them. “Dreams, even nightmares are tricky things. They should give us signs of what’s really going on in our heads in our waking life.”

“Our subconscious,” Lydia says with a blank expression on her face. She seems to always draw that blank expression on her face even when she’s always the first one who understands these things.

“Exactly,” You say to Lydia with a proud smile. You turn to Derek. “Derek, how do you feel about the fire? Not the one in your dream. But the one that actually happened – when you weren’t there. How do you feel about that now?” Derek breathes deeply and quietly, finding the answers in his heart. He purses his lips before answering.

“Awful. It was my fault. It was my fault they died,” Derek says in his breath like he doesn’t want anyone to hear it.

“Looks like this is a job for a psychologist,” Stiles says and everybody shoots an annoyed look at him. “You know what? I’ll just sit here and drink my juice.” He draws a zipper over his lips with his fingers. You all turn back to Derek and continue listening.

“Hey, Derek, it wasn’t your fault, man,” Scott consoles him. Derek nods at him. You can tell that he’s also trying to believe the words of his Beta. Your phone rings and cuts the moment. It’s Deaton. You put him on speaker.

“That snakeskin you found has a mixed DNA of a human and a yellow-bellied snake,” Deaton says on the phone.

“What? Two DNAs? Like a Chimera?” You ask.

“I have a strong feeling it’s not. It’s still evolving, Y/N/N. We need to move fast,” Deaton says. All of you at the loft exchange looks at each other. 

“All right. But we’ll need to retrace Derek’s dream again. He saw snake tracks in it. I wanna find out if it leads him somewhere.”

“Okay. You better hurry before it kills someone again tonight,” Deaton says and then hangs up. 

“So…a yellow-bellied snake? You found a snake skin?” Scott asks you.

“Yeah, Derek and I walked into the woods this morning and found an unusual snakeskin,” you start off, retracing what happened earlier.

“But it was in the shape of a human,” Derek finishes.

“And that’s why we need to retrace Derek’s dream. We need him to follow the track and see if it leads him somewhere. Anywhere,” You say, and suddenly, what the pack needs to do is becoming clear to you.

“Stiles, I need you to get a piece of that DNA sample from Deaton and bring it to the hospital. Find a way that you can get a name that matches the DNA. And when you do, maybe look for records at the police station.” You turn to Scott. “Scott, please go with Stiles. Make sure you come back with results. Here, I’m saving my number on your phone and call me as soon as you get a name.” You give back Scott’s phone and then you turn to Lydia. “Lydia, you will help me here. We’re gonna make a sedative from scratch.” Scott and Stiles head out of the loft, leaving you, Lydia, and Derek.

“Can’t we just buy one from the store?” Lydia says, pertaining to prescription drugs.

“No. We can’t use that stuff. We’re going to do something supernatural here. We just need Derek half asleep; not completely asleep,” You say to Lydia. Derek stands up and looks out the window. He stays quiet in his thoughts while you and Lydia rush to prepare the sedative. “Derek, this is your place, so could you please boil some water? Lydia and I will take care of the rest.”

“Sure,” Derek says softly and smiles kindly at you. You can tell that he likes it that you needed him to do something for you. You then ask him to bring out a mortar and pestle. You then bring out two bottles filled with dried herbs and flowers. One is dark pink, and the other, purple. And then you bring out a third bottle – one filled with liquid mistletoe.

“These are lavenders,” You refer to the purple flowers. “And these are valerians,” You refer to the pink herbs. “I’m going to crush them, and mix them with one drop of mistletoe, then infuse them in hot water. And you’re going to drink every last drop,” You say to Derek. You bring out the dried lavenders and valerians, and then you ask Lydia to pick the petals from the weeds so you could start grinding them together to save time.

“So these are supposed to put Derek half-asleep?” Lydia asks you curiously as she waits for the water to come to a boil.

“It will relax his nerves – his body. As for his mind, I’ll take care of that.” You look at them both intently. You finish grinding and mixing the herbs and flowers together the same time the water finishes boiling. You put a huge pinch of the mixed petals into a mug, the drop of mistletoe, and then lastly, you add the hot water. You ask Derek to recline on the couch. “The infusion should be ready in three minutes. Finish the whole cup, but don’t drink petals,” You tell him. 

“Lydia, could you read up on hybrids? They should be here…in my Encyclopedia of Supernatural Creatures,” you ask Lydia as you give her your book.  
“Wow, there’s really such a thing,” Lydia remarks, observing the cover of the book.

“You should come to my place sometime and see all fourteen volumes,” You tell her monotonously. Lydia suddenly glances at you. “You’re not kidding,” Lydia says in disbelief.

You smile at her and say, “I’m just messing with you. There are only about three volumes.” Derek chuckles quietly at you and Lydia smiles back at you then says “So…Just a general hybrid?”

“Anything you can find that has a part-snake on it. Listen to the pages when you flip them. Maybe you’ll find it easier that way.” Lydia agrees and starts flipping the book’s pages and brings her ears close to the books. Meanwhile, Derek has already drunk the infusion halfway.

“I’m sorry, Derek, but we’re gonna have to do this again,” You say to him when you sit on the table, facing him. He doesn’t say anything but he holds your hand and then leans forward to kiss you slowly. You practically make out without realizing Lydia is already looking at the both of you. You share an embarrassed smile with Derek when you both look at Lydia.

“Well, it’s really only a matter of time before anything happened between you two. But I guess you’re way ahead of time,” Lydia says nonchalantly, looking back at the book. “Not that it’s any of my business,” she says and continues flipping the pages. You and Derek don’t say anything back to Lydia, but you smile at each other embarrassingly. 

It takes a few minutes until Derek dozes off on the couch. His eyes are closed but you can tell he hasn’t passed out yet. You leave him alone so he could fall half-asleep, so now you’re helping Lydia look up on hybrids in your book. 

“Is Deaton sure that this creature is not a Chimera?” Lydia asks you without taking her gaze off the book.  
“Pretty much. At least they’re not like the ones I heard about here in Beacon Hills,” You say.  
“You’ve heard about the Dread Doctors?”  
“Yeah. Word travels pretty fast in even in the supernatural world. It’s our version of the daily news.”

Thirty minutes pass and you and Lydia are still reading. “I can’t hear anything from the pages,” Lydia tells you, exhaling sharply.  
“That’s okay. It’ll come to you. Maybe we shouldn’t force it,” You reply. “Take a break. We’ll get somewhere.” Lydia nods at you and slowly stands up. She goes to the kitchen to get some water while you remain seated, skimming more pages. Just a few more tries and you know the words and pictures could make you feel dizzy.

Lydia pours water into a glass and suddenly stops. She tilts her head as she tries to confirm that she hears something. She puts down the water pitcher and the glass on the kitchen counter. She turns her back to the kitchen and walks slowly towards Derek, who’s already half-asleep. You eventually notice this when Lydia is standing close to Derek; her eyes wide, almost not blinking. 

“Lydia? What’s going on?”  
“I hear something,” Lydia answers softly, almost whispering. You stand up to walk towards her. 

“What is it?” You whisper back. Lydia doesn’t answer you. Instead, she moves closer to Derek and tilts her head to her left as she sits on the coffee table. She stares blankly and you can tell that whatever it is she hears, she’s hearing it much louder now. Lydia is listening to Derek’s breathing rhythm, and it’s telling her one thing. She carefully whispers it once the word becomes clear to her ears.

“Daugh…ter,” she whispers and finally she has a subject to look at – you. Lydia slowly stands up in a bit of a shock, probably still registering what she heard.  
“Did you just say…”  
“Daughter,” Lydia finishes your sentence. “The man’s daughter. Didn’t you say something about the man’s daughter?”

“Yeah. He’s a single dad,” you say, and trail off to your thoughts, trying to maybe connect the dots or something. Suddenly, Derek’s body jerks a little and it sends you and Lydia jumping at once.

“I think Derek’s up,” You say, referring to his participation in this investigation. Lydia nods at you and steps away from Derek. “Derek? Can you hear me? It’s me, Y/N,” You ask him monotonously to keep him in his trance.

“Y/N…” Derek says in a whisper, eyes still closed.  
“Derek? Do you know where you are?”  
“Home…”  
“Where are you exactly, Derek? Which part of the house?”  
“Basement,” Derek says and starts panting. “Everyone’s dying.” You and Lydia look at each other worriedly.  
“Can you see the snake track in the basement?” You ask him.  
“Yes.”  
“Can you follow the track?”  
“Yes,” Derek pauses. His closed eyes are moving rapidly and his breathing speed increases. He is probably running as he follows the track in his dream. “It’s leading me upstairs. In the back door…the track ends there. How could the snake get out of the door?” You ignore his question.

“Open the door, Derek. And hurry. You don’t have much time until your dream ends,” You say to him. Derek doesn’t respond and his breathing calms now. The silence in the room lasts for about fifteen seconds. “Derek? Did you open the door?”

“Yes. I’m not in the house anymore. But I see someone else’s house. The track’s leading me there.”  
“Do you know whose house it is?”  
“Ask him what street he’s in,” Lydia whispers to you.  
“What street are you in, Derek?”  
“I’m on Palm Street. I don’t recognize the house…blue door. 862.”

“862 Palm Street. House with a blue door. Got it,” Lydia says as she finishes writing the details on her phone. You nod at her, giving her a “Good work” look.  
“Should I go inside the house?” Derek asks.

“No, no. You’ve done enough, Derek. It’s time to wake up. Try to wake up on your own,” You say to him. He doesn’t respond but his breathing starts escalating again.

“Derek? What’s happening?” He still isn’t responding but you can sense something’s wrong going on his dream. His body is jerking rapidly again but this time it doesn’t stop. He starts screaming and his screams becoming amplified by his werewolf. “Lydia, please hold him down as hard as you can.” Lydia rushes behind Derek to hold him down in his shoulders. You grab the bottle of oil from your pocket and quickly rub a drop on your palms to do the maneuver to wake Derek up.

You wipe the oil on his arms and put another drop of oil on your palm, this time rubbing it slowly on the center of your non-dominant palm. Three fingers of your dominant palm absorb the oil from your other palm and you bring it to press his glabella, while your non-dominant palm covers his nose for him to smell the oil. 

You utter an inaudible prayer as you close your eyes and keep your hands still on his face. You then make a circular motion with your three fingers on his glabella, before making a final upward motion. Finally, his eyes suddenly open wide, physically gaining a sense of his surroundings. His panting slowly calming.

“Derek? Are you okay?” you ask him, and then Derek grabs your hands firmly that it almost hurts you for two seconds until he lets go it when he realizes it. Lydia has let go of her hands off Derek’s shoulders.  
“I’m okay,” Derek looks at your eyes. “I’m okay.”

“Good. You did well,” You say, holding his hands and realize they’re still oily. You smile at him when you say, “You can wipe that off now.” He smiles back and says “So, are we going to that house?”

“I think so. But we need to know who lives there first,” You say. Your phone suddenly rings and you reach for it on the kitchen table. It must be Scott. You answer it and put the call on speakerphone. You can hear the noisy background on the other end of the line. It’s windy and you can hear the motor of Stiles’ Jeep.

“Y/N, it’s Scott. The DNA from the snakeskin had no match in the hospital. But the man’s body was brought to the hospital and he’s been identified by the police when his daughter reported him missing this morning,” Scott says in a loud voice over the phone. “His name’s Gabriel Fenmore. His daughter Gaia is in under custody of the police.”

“What about her mom? Didn’t the police call her when he was reported missing?” You ask him.

“They did. She lives in Nevada and the last thing they knew was she was having a conference out of town. Hold on, I’m gonna put you on speakerphone.”

“Hey guys, while we were out here bustin’ our asses for names and DNAs, did you do anything useful?” Stiles says on the loudspeaker. Derek rolls his eyes, pursing his lips, and suddenly roars to Stiles on the phone, frightening all of you, and causing Scott and Stiles to freak out on the road.

“Oh! My god! Was that Derek?! That was Derek. Hey, do you know I’m driving here?!” Stiles exclaims on the phone. You could only imagine how it must be like out there.

“Hey, could you just focus here?” Derek’s tone is clearly the annoyed kind. “We have a lead.”

“Yeah, 862 Palm Street. We need to get to that house,” Lydia continues.  
“What? Did you just say 862 Palm Street?” Scott clarifies.  
“Yeah. Why?” Lydia asks.

“That’s Fenmore’s address. How did you guys know about that?” Scott asks. “Derek’s dream. The snake track led him to it,” You answer him. “Meet us there,” You say and then hang up the phone.


	5. Chapter 5

You, Lydia, and Derek prepare to leave. Derek offers to drive his car. Fifteen minutes later, you arrive at 862 Palm Street and notice Stiles and Scott haven’t arrived yet. The house is dark. Clearly, nobody’s home. The three of you stand on the sidewalk, observing the house’s exterior.

“I don’t know if this is such a good idea,” You say, exhaling deeply as you put in mind that you’re about to break and enter someone’s house.

“Hello? This was your idea.” You look at Lydia when she glares at you.

“I know. But that doesn’t mean I like it. You know what? Maybe I should just stay here. You know, I’ll keep watch,” You say, keeping your hands inside your jacket pockets and turning your back to the house as you attempt to return to Derek’s Camaro. You hear Derek exhale sharply at your cowardice and it freezes your steps. You turn to face them and look at Derek.

“What makes you think I’m gonna let you stay out here alone?” Derek says to you. He pursed his lips telling you not to take another step further away.

“This is one of the reasons I hate my job. If it doesn’t kill me, it’ll incarcerate me,” You say as you turn around again. Lydia takes a step forward towards the house, leaving you and Derek beside each other. Derek takes your hand and intertwines them with his.

“We’ll be fine. That’s why we took my car,” Derek informs you. Lydia looks over her shoulders, smirking at you.

“Okay. That definitely means you guys do this a lot. Besides, who knows how to pick locks here anyway?” You ask and Derek and Lydia both raise their hands. Your eyebrows raise and your head tilts a little. “Ok. I’m sold. Let’s hurry.” Derek tries to open the door and it surprises the three of you when it does.

“Oh, thank God. We don’t even have to break in.” Your relieved tone is almost too loud until you realize how quiet your surroundings are. You whisper, “Sorry.”

“The police must’ve left the door unlocked when they took the daughter,” Derek says and the three of you walk slowly inside, observing your surroundings. Lydia takes out her phone and uses its flashlight. Derek uses his werewolf eyes. You take out your phone and use its flashlight too. Reaching the kitchen, which is the middle part of the house, Lydia looks back at you and Derek, who are still looking around the living room.

“Guys, get in here,” Lydia whispers loudly. You and Derek immediately leave the living room and join Lydia. “Don’t you think something’s off around here?”

Derek looks around swiftly and looks back at you and Lydia and says “What is it?”

“I can’t put my finger on it,” Lydia responds. She stays in the same position as she tries to feel the room.

“Me neither,” You say. “There’s something in this house. I think we need to look upstairs.” The three of you go upstairs and find the girl’s room. Her name is hung on the doors, spelled in wooden letters. “G A I A.” You open the door and the room greets you with fresh terror. Lydia suddenly screams, making both you and Derek cover your ears. You rush towards her.

“You hear it too, don’t you?” You say to Lydia, referring to the girl’s screams that happened in this very room. You put your arms around Lydia so you could help her contain the noise in her head. She stops screaming and then looks at you with worried eyes. Your hands are holding her head now, still containing the noise with the power of your shield.

“He hit her,” Lydia softly whispers. A wisp of terror marked in her eyes.

“Lydia, I’m going to let go of your head. You might hear the voices again. Do you think you can handle it without screaming this time?” Lydia nods her head subtly. Then you let go of her head. Lydia catches her breath and looks at you, confirming that she’s fine. Now, your attention shifts to the room. You can still hear echoes of the girl’s screams and thuds from being hit. The noise is faint, however. It’s difficult to prove it. If it were all up to you, this is what you would have decided – that the girl, Gaia, was hurt terribly.

The room looks perfectly fine. Gaia’s bed is made. Her books and toys are neatly placed on the shelves. Derek remains standing by the doorstep, observing the room in a farther view. You and Lydia scatter on both sides of the room. She sits on the bed and looks around opposite Derek’s view. You approach the girl’s study desk and see pictures of her parents with her on a family trip in the Grand Canyon. She was probably five years old in the picture.

“Did anyone ever mention how old the little girl is?” You ask them.

“No. But I’m guessing not old enough to be home alone,” Derek answers. Lydia’s phone rings. Seeing that it’s Scott, she answers the phone immediately and puts the call on speaker. You and Derek move closer to her to hear the call.

“We just got a call from the Sheriff. The creature went to the station shortly after we left. They said it went for the kid – the dead man’s daughter,” Scott reports. “Somehow it snuck inside but an officer saw it and shot it when it attacked the kid.”

“Oh god, was she hurt?” Lydia asked.

“The kid’s fine, we’re on our way back now to talk to her and maybe pick her up.”

“Good thinking, Scott. There’s not much progress on our end though,” you report back.

“I almost forgot to tell you. This creature is fast,” Scott warns. Then Stiles adds, “Better watch your back ‘cause that thing’s sneaky.” Lydia gasps as she looks behind you and drops her phone to the floor. Suddenly you feel someone – something sneaking up behind you. You turn around and see a figure resembling a Kanima. It was slightly bigger than a Kanima. It had a long tail too, but it didn’t have scales. Instead, it had fur, like a wolf. But its tail resembled much of a reptile’s. It’s pointed and is clearly being used as a weapon with the way it moves. Its eyes are glowing yellow and its face has a broad snout, like a wolf’s. And it stands on its two feet.

The hybrid creature climbs the walls quietly while glaring at the three of you. Scott and Stiles can still be heard on the phone until the call drops. You are the one standing closest to the hybrid. Derek moves beside you and puts his left arm over your stomach. His eyes glow crimson as he prepares himself for a fight. The hybrid growls at Derek deeply, its anger continues brewing. Meanwhile, you remain glued to where you last stepped as you observe the hybrid carefully.

You can feel intense emotions coming from the hybrid. You can feel its worry, anger, agitation, and guilt. This surge of emotions come at you rapidly that it is somehow hard to process. You have the urge to get closer to the creature, hoping that you could help it turn back to its human form. You look at Lydia standing behind you and she looks worried and may be mentally preparing to scream in case she needs to. You look at the hybrid again and you think of ways to get it to trust you. Derek, however, fully turns into his werewolf form and roars at the hybrid. The hybrid retaliates and grabs you on your ankles with its tail and immediately has you captive.

You’re on your knees now, your arms are suspended behind your back by one of its large, rough, and hairy arms. The other arm is holding you on your stomach while its tail has your neck. You can smell its stench and it smells like a hundred animals or a wild animal that’s been bathing in swamps and sewers. You could smell its breath, and there’s a hint of human breath in it. You struggle to breathe in its arms and tail, but you give Derek a warning not to come attacking the hybrid. His anger is evident and it’s the last thing you need right now.

You want to hold the hybrid to help the situation, so you take advantage of your being its hostage, and with your available fingers, you hold its hand even though it’s quite difficult to. Its hand was furry and damp with blood. There’s a wound somewhere you haven’t found yet. You immediately feel a surge of energy coming to you. Screams and indistinct conversations ramming into your mind’s ear, making you close your eyes and enter a trance. You can feel you’re being pulled back by the hybrid, dragging your feet on the floor. Before you completely drift into a trance, you tell Derek and Lydia, “I’m fine. I need to do this. Don’t hurt her.”

Derek and Lydia pick up on what you said, and you said “her.” They look at each other on the corner of their eyes as they keep distance. You finally lose sight of them and drift into a trance. The hybrid’s memory comes rapidly in your mind.

The hybrid, in its human form, was working in her home office late at night when she received a phone call from her daughter, Gaia. Gaia had told her that her father, Gabriel, had hit her. They had a little argument and he had lost his temper and slapped her face with the whole of his hand. Right after receiving the call, she drove out to Beacon Hills in an attempt to take her daughter with her and perhaps call the police.

On her way to Beacon Hills, an Alpha werewolf beast attacked her car, leading it to crash on the highway near the beach. She was bitten by the werewolf beast that left her after giving her the bite. It took a while before she got herself out of the car, and when she did, she crawled out of it and the bite on the side of her tummy started to heal. She was already losing consciousness as soon as she got away from the car when a yellow-bellied snake passed by. She unknowingly grabbed it, thinking it was a branch or something, and caused the snake to panic and bite her in the hand. The snake bite soon knocks her out of consciousness.

As soon as she regained consciousness, the snake was nowhere in sight and she was able to start walking again on her feet. After a while, she started running on all fours. That same night she caught Derek in the woods and attacked him, but realizing she didn’t know Derek after all, he left him wounded. She spent the next day roaming around the woods, looking for food and water. She drank from the spring and ate squirrels during the day. When the night fell, she went to her ex-husband’s home and watched him and her daughter from the outside. She saw him push her daughter against the kitchen counter. She growled at the sight but continued watching them. Gabriel Fenmore realized what he has done so he rushed to get his jacket and went for a run. His daughter was left crying in the kitchen quietly.

As he got out of the house, he started running. The hybrid followed him, listening to his increasing heartbeat and grunts of frustration and anger. She waited until he was deep into the forest before she made her presence known, and eventually attacked him ruthlessly, sealing his fate.

You open your eyes as your trance ended. You catch your breath when you realize it was harder for you to breathe now that the hybrid is strangling you with its tail. Tears are streaming across your face from the visions in your trance and from the struggle you have under the hybrid’s mercy.

Your legs are involuntarily shaking now. Your head feels like it’s about to explode. You faintly hear Lydia calling your name and Derek is about to attack the hybrid. You don’t want the hybrid to be killed, so before it’s too late, you muster the last few breaths you have and disable your shield. The bright yellow bubble around you disappears in the blink of an eye, causing Derek to move back, startled that your shield is gone. In an attempt to absorb the hybrid’s most dominant emotions, you hold her hands regardless of the large claws. Her tail’s grip on your neck loosened until finally, she lets go.

You cough loudly as you struggle to speak, warning Derek not to hurt the hybrid, who has now knelt on her knees, her grip on your hand loosens until you’re the one holding her hands. They are furry and have long claws, but they still look like a human’s hands.

Your chest becomes heavy and you start to cry heavy tears again. You turn around to look at the face of the hybrid and the first thing you see is her eyes – no longer glowing yellow, but they were blue. Blue human eyes. You could see through those eyes and with her furry hands on yours, you are absorbing all the intensified emotions she is feeling. 

All of it is overwhelming, making you want to scream everything you’ve got. Except your voice is still weak from strangulation. Relief washes over you as she is now calmer than before. This might be the chance to make her turn back into a human. And it could be the perfect opportunity to capture her.

You still find it a little hard to breathe and take everything from the creature. You start to feel lightheaded. Your hands are trembling from the physical contact and your vision is starting to spin and darken. As your hands let go of the creature’s, you fall to your side, still trembling when you hear your name being called and the last thing you hear is the thuds of the footsteps when the creature runs away from you.

Derek was going to chase the hybrid but he put you first in his attention, in the fear that you might be dying. He rushes to you and he checks your body for wounds. He feels relieved the moment he hears your heartbeat. Lydia, on the other hand, picks up her phone to call back Scott and tell him what happened, or at least, how she understood what happened. Stiles and Scott remain on the lookout for when the creature comes back to the station for her daughter, although none of you are sure if she ever would.

As the boys got back to the station, the little girl was already sleeping on the bench just outside the Sheriff’s office. They called Isaac for another hand, and Isaac was tasked to stay close to the girl while Scott and Stiles talk to the Sheriff. 

Isaac stares at the 11-year old girl sleeping on the bench. Her yellow jacket as a pillow and a grey fleece blanket draped over her body. She has chocolate brown hair, wavy and tied to a ponytail. Her long eyelashes rest over her dark eyes. She must have had little to no sleep since her father went missing. How could all of you break the news that her father was murdered? And not just murdered, but brutally killed by a supernatural creature?

Isaac knows the feeling all too well. He and she are not too different in this supernatural world. Her father was killed after he beat her. And the creature they’re looking for is a reptile. Just like Jackson was before he resolved his issues and then became a werewolf.

“I won’t let anyone hurt you again, little girl,” he whispers to her.

Meanwhile, inside the office…

“You know I can’t let you take the poor girl. Not until her mother is here,” Noah argues.

“Dad, you know we can’t risk any more police officers in this place. We’re just exposing the supernatural to more people,” Stiles says.

“Yeah? Look around you, son,” Noah says and points to the workplace outside his office. Stiles and Scott turn their heads around to look at the police officers who took the night shift. “Do these people look frightened to you?” Both boys look back at the Sheriff and shake their heads.

“I have trusted colleagues here who may have seen just enough supernatural to still be skeptical about it. And so far, no one’s freaked out enough to go telling strangers.” Noah’s eyebrows are pulled together as he tries to bring some sense into the boys. “This is Beacon Hills. Everybody knows something, and everybody’s good at hiding it.”

Scott pushes himself forward from his seat and says, “Sheriff, I know what you mean. But we still don’t know why that creature wanted the girl. If it will come back for her, at least we know that we could protect her. Not that you guys can’t, but…you know this our battle. You’ve done enough at this point, Sir.” Noah sighs loudly. The kid made his point.

“And if the mother comes?”

“Tell her she’s staying at her friend’s house,” Scott answers.

“With adult supervision,” Stiles adds.

“You mean Derek Hale?” Noah asks incredulously.

“Two adults, actually. Derek Hale and Y/N Y/L/N,” Scott replies.

“Who is she?”

“An Empath.”

“Oh great, another supernatural creature, is she?”

Scott and Stiles look at each other with uncertainty. “We’re not sure. But she can do things. She’s Deaton’s friend. He called her to help us out,” Scott assures him. Noah lets out another sigh and gives them a look that says he might regret approving the girl’s release but does so anyway.

After that, Noah wakes up the girl to tell her where Scott, Stiles, and Isaac are taking her for the night. The little girl was able to mention that her father had hit her twice before he went missing. On that note, Noah asked the boys to make sure a female figure was around. After finding out that you were knocked unconscious, the boys call Allison to stay with the girl at Derek’s place. They meet her there at almost midnight.

It is still night time when you wake up and you are already back at Derek’s loft, laying in your bed. The first thing you see is the shelf that houses your jars of herbs and plants. Your head still feels a little nauseated. Your left hand twitches and then you realize a familiar hand is holding it. You drift your eyes to your side and see Derek, seated beside your bed and sleeping with his forehead resting over his forearm. You squeeze his hand to wake him up, and he does. His droopy, river green eyes darting around to find yours. He whispers deeply to you, “Hey…you’re ok.”

“I guess I am. Where’s Lydia?”

“I dropped her off to her place before taking you home. The hybrid got away. Don’t worry, we’ll find it. We’ll find her. I caught her scent. I also asked the Argents for help. We need them on this one.”

“What time is it? How ‘bout the girl? Gaia? Is she ok?” Derek softly brushes his thumb over your forehead. You thought you wouldn’t remember anything from the trance, but amazingly enough, you remember every bit of it. In fact, you feel hungover from what happened just hours ago.

“Yeah. She’s here, sleeping upstairs. Allison’s with her. Isaac’s here too. He’s sleeping in my couch now.” You stay silent to take in the new information and are thankful for the progress that was made while you were out. The silence takes longer between you two when you keep your eyes glued on him. “How are you feeling?” he asks although you think he probably has a million questions about what you did with the hybrid.

“Still a little woozy,” You answer and your voice breaks. Your body still feels wobbly. You know you need a good night’s sleep.

“Oh. Here. I’m sure you need this.” Derek hands you a plastic cup of water and helps you up as you push your back away from the bed. You drink the cup of water in two gulps. Derek knows you needed more. He smelt how dehydrated you are so he grabs the pitcher to put some more water on the cup.

“Thanks,” you manage to say to him, and then grab the cup again to drink more water. “I could finish that whole pitcher right now.”

“Exactly why I got you the whole thing,” he says chuckling and then his look changes. His face drops with concern in his eyes. “I was worried about you. You almost got yourself killed out there.”

“I did what I had to do. And I saw a lot of things. I saw her memories, Derek. How she became the creature she is now. I don’t think she’ll kill the little girl. She’s her daughter. She came to Beacon Hills to take her from her father. But some alpha werewolf bit her. She crashed her car out of the highway and into the beach. That’s where she got bitten by a snake,” You say and then stop as you gather the last remaining memories. You feel dizzy as you try to remember, making you close your eyes again and put your head back on the pillow.

“We can talk about it tomorrow. Just rest for now, ok?” he squeezes your hand before kissing the back of it. You smile weakly and then open your eyes. They feel heavy. The nerves in your arms are still tingling. You like the feeling that Derek gives you when he holds you. It’s a different kind of tingle. You move to the edge of the bed and pull his hand.

“Stay with me?” you whisper to him. The corner of his mouth raises to form a smile. Your hands are strong enough to carry themselves so you hold his face and pull him in for a kiss. “Please stay with me tonight, Derek,” You whisper as you search his deep-set eyes.

“Ok, ok…stop begging,” he muses. You both smile and then you melt in his kiss before the two of you doze off to sleep.


End file.
